1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to processing and more specifically to metering a processing workload to control power consumption and/or thermal characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional processors enter a low power mode when the processor becomes idle due to a lack of processing workload. Typically, the lack of processing workload is detected and confirmed over several clock cycles before the low power mode is initiated. There is a latency associated with entering and exiting the low power mode, so confirmation is used to ensure that the low power mode is entered when the processor is likely to remain in a low power mode for a time that is greater than the entering and exiting latency.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method for improved techniques for reducing power consumption based on the processing workload.